Courage Essay Research Paper In the 1940s

Courage Essay, Research Paper

In the 1940.s, Malcolm Little (also known as Malcolm X) stood up against racism towards all Black people. This courageous act becomes even more courageous when it is considered that he was following in his Fathers footsteps, even though his father was murdered because of his philosophies about equality. It often takes great courage for one to stand up for their individual beliefs. It is courage that offers hope for equality in the generations to come.

Society in general tends to oppose anything they don.t understand or anything they may be ignorant about. A lot of this has to do with conformity. People don.t like to center themselves out, or be seen as different, so they modify their behavior to fit in with society around them. Young children absorb the views of the older people and adapt them as their own. This Prejudice and its destruction, along with demonstrations of courage is shown in the books, Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Gutterson, and To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

Society today, is still somewhat like society was in the early 1940.s. People still believe all of the stereotypes about other people, and even develop their own stereotypes. Just like Athletes and Cheerleaders are stereotyped as being somewhat unintelligent, and black people, as being natural Athletes, and even teenagers as being rebels, the Japanese people, around the time of World War Two, were stereotyped as being peasants and lower in class than the white Americans. The Japanese American Citizens in Snow Falling on Cedars also experience the prejudice aspect of stereotypes.

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: Fujiko saw Ilse Severson there, leaning against the railing with her hands clasped in front of her, she waved at the Imadas as they passed by. Ilse, a Seattle transplant, had for ten years purchased strawberries from Fujiko and spoke to her as if she were a peasant whose role in life was to make island life pleasantly exotic for Ilse.s friends who visited from the city. Her kindness had always been condescending, and she had always paid a bit extra for her berries with the air of doling out charity. (Gutterson 216)

Ilse Severson had stereotyped the Japanese family as peasants, and showed prejudice towards the Japanese people when she treated them with no respect and thought that they should be thankful that she was taking them on as a charity case.

When one person mistrusts another, it means that they are unsure about that person.s loyalty or credibility. Most people are mistrusting of anyone that they don.t really know. Since people strive to be accepted by their peers, conformity becomes a problem when a person.s cultural or racial background is socially accepted at that particular point in time.

.Well, you.re the man of the house, you wear the pants, go ahead and sell our property to a Jar and see what becomes of it.. (Gutterson 121)

This demonstrates both how people will treat a person who is different in any way, and also how a person will exert a prejudice nature because of social acceptance. Etta, the speaker of that passage, know that people will talk if a Japanese man buys her land so she tries to convince her husband that it is a bad idea.

In accordance to this, the prejudice that is shown causes much damage and destruction amongst everyone involved. In Snow Falling on Cedars, Ishmael Chambers

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was very bitter towards the Japanese people because of an immoral relationship with a Japanese woman who told him that she didn.t love him and that she never did. She went to an internment camp, and because he could not ask why or make peace, he turned his feelings into bitterness and hatred for all Japanese people. His life was ruined. This was more or less self-destruction on Ishmaels part, however, most of the time, these prejudice acts affect people who are innocent.

.It.s because you.re from Japanese folks. You figure because you.re from Japanese folks nobody will believe you anyway.. The conversation continues, .I.ve got a right to think that way. Or maybe you.ve forgotten that a few years back, the government decided it couldn.t trust any of us and shipped us out here.. (Gutterson 391)

This demonstrates how the Japanese people felt about the way they had been treated. They felt bitterness towards their government, which was supposed to be of service to them, yet were shipping the Japanese people away because they posed a threat to them in the war.

Even though in Snow Falling on Cedars, there was much hatred between the two races, there were also some acts of kindness that in the end proves the statement . Good conquers evil.. In the novel, Ishmael Chambers pronounces, . Accident ruled every corner of the universe except for the human heart.. This shows how even though mass opinion believed that kabuo, the man accused of Murder, was guilty, Ishmael knew in his heart that Kabuo as a person, was not capable of committing such a crime. In turn he found enough courage in him to go against everyone else and find a way to prove

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Kabou.s innocence. Carl Heine.s Father, the father of the man who was eventually killed, is an even better example of this. He was a friend with Kabuo.s family for a long time, even though it was socially unacceptable to have a casual relationship with a Japanese person. Even his wife ridiculed him for doing

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